MARY LAHAJ: Immigrants have changed America, and vice versa

Friday

Apr 28, 2017 at 12:01 AM

Mary Lahaj

Everyone has an opinion about immigrants. To keep America great, some insist that immigrants must change immediately to fit in. Others insist that immigrants should not change but be free to retain their identity because Americans value freedom and diversity. The insistence that refugees change immediately so they look and sound like “us” has a long history in this country. I heard a story recently about the residents of a town in Minnesota, complaining about resettled Somali refugees: “Their food is strange, clothing outlandish, religion is violent, and language odd-sounding.”

Some will remember that the Irish were accused of being “unmixable.” And today, this same view of immigrants begs the big question: What if “those” people don’t change? What if we are expected to change and become like them? As one resident stated, “We do not want our values or our children’s values to change or be changed by these immigrants.”

As a second-generation, American-born Muslim woman – whose parents were born here and whose grandparents came from Syria at the turn of the 20th century – I am an expert on change. Change has played a critical role in my family’s more than 100 years in America. It is an inevitable, imperceptible process, and like the sun, it touches everyone and everything.

For example, when my mother needed help with the housework, she hired a new immigrant from Finland. One day, she observed the young woman ironing. First, the woman would spit on the clothes, and then press them with the hot iron. Even after my mother explained that this practice (and a few others) was unacceptable, the young woman continued to do things her way. But since the young woman would not change, my mother had to let her go. For many immigrants, change is about survival and keeping a job.

Change has also played an important role in America when it comes to food. I remember asking my grandfather (of the immigrant generation) why our “Syrian” ethnic food had changed to become “Lebanese” food. To get a comprehensive explanation, I had to take a history course about the Middle East.

Our American cuisine has undergone slow, inevitable change. Take some of our favorite foods, such as Chinese, Italian, barbecue, cinnamon and chili peppers – all brought by immigrants, changing our taste buds forever. Maybe it’s our hubristic self-regard, but we have taken ownership of these foods, accepted them hungrily into our American cuisine, and forgotten all the immigrants who gave them to us.

Food changes from the first day an immigrant arrives. The process continues as each new American generation tries to re-create the food of its parents. If my grandfather were still alive to taste my baklava, he would ask me why it changed – after only two generations.

As Americans, not only do we have a unique cuisine, we also fashion our own religions too. Diana Eck, founder of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, has pioneered an emerging field that documents the transformation of religions brought to America by immigrants, including the “new” religions of Islam, Hinduism, Jain, Christianity and Judaism, each being practiced uniquely in America.

Sadly, fear of change has been directed at immigrants, Muslims, people who look like Muslims and people of color. Blinded by fear, xenophobes have lost faith in our values and strengths and refuse to see the transforming power of America. America transforms people, food and religion and presents unparalleled opportunity for people to actualize their potential. We’re not a melting pot that sits on the back burner, waiting and watching for it to boil down.

In my Syrian-American Muslim family, my grandparents had to change to survive. In the second generation, my parents had to change to succeed. Each generation gets to choose what it wants to carry forward in its American life and what it wants to leave behind. As the third generation, I have chosen to practice American Islam. From my family I also inherited the burning desire to be a good American (a passion that never skips a generation). I passed love of country down and demonstrated the value of change to my children.

To me, that torch held by the Statue of Liberty symbolizes the burning desire to be a part of what makes America great. It also represents the eternal faith that immigrants have in America.

And by the way, for the first time, a Somali (a woman) just won the privilege of representing Minnesota in Congress.

Mary Lahaj holds a master’s degree in Islamic studies and is a freelance writer and speaker. Members of her family founded the Islamic Center of New England in Quincy.

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